Quick overview
| Standard Rate | Reduced Rate | Other Rates |
| 16,5% | N/A | Zero rated (0%) and exempt |
The local name for VAT in Malawi is Value-added tax (VAT).
There is basically 1 VAT rate in Malawi:
- Standard VAT rate is 16,5%
Recent developments
For more information about (recent) rate change developments in Malawi, please click HERE.
Standard rate: 16,5%
This rate applies for all transactions that take place in Malawi, unless an exception applies (such as a reduced rate, the zero rate or an exemption, or a reason to treat the transaction as outside scope of VAT).
Zero rate (0%)
0% VAT on these transactions with the right to deduct VAT.
- Exports of goods and services
- Laundry soap
- Exercise books
- Goods shipped as stores on aircraft and vessels leaving the territory of Malawi
- Fertilizers
- Sheath contraceptives (condoms)
- Salt
- Motor vehicles for transport of goods
- Pharmaceutical products
- Buses
- Military equipment
- Building materials for factories and warehouses
- Goods for use in tourism industry
- Miscellaneous chemical products
- Cycle and Motorcycle ambulances
- Syringes with or without needles
- Mosquito and sand fly nets
- Poultry or chicken feed
- Energy: Liquified petroleum gas (LPG), Gas cylinders, Wood cook stoves
- Solar products
- Energy efficient bulbs
Exempt supplies of goods and services
Exempt: Transactions on which no VAT is due and no possibility to deduct VAT
- Banking and life assurance services, Coins
- Live animals & animal products
- Postal services
- Transport of exports
- Educational services
- Medical equipment and services, Medical surgical or laboratory sterilizers
- Vegetable products in raw state
- Printed matter
- Petroleum products
- Vehicles other than railway and train way rolling-stock, Rail locomotives and parts
- Industrial machinery and construction machinery
- Funeral service
- Rentals and sale of properties used for residential purposes
- Betting and gaming including lotteries
A global VAT/GST rate overview can be found here (note this is a work in progress).
This post was last updated on September 6, 2021.
